The Bajaj V - A motorcycle made with INS Vikrant's steel

This is a discussion on The Bajaj V - A motorcycle made with INS Vikrant's steel within Motorbikes, part of the BHP India category; Originally Posted by KK_HakunaMatata
Yeah. Also it would look better with only round headlight without any assembly.
Going by the ...

Yeah. Also it would look better with only round headlight without any assembly.

Going by the reviews on the internet of the Bajaj V - 100cc like top speed and loads of pulling ability very low down (and thus apparently very ghat friendly) the bike seems like the erstwhile and very rural Boxer BM150's urban cousin. I remember getting a test ride of the BM150 ages ago.

I might do a test ride of the V sometime in the next 10 days here in Himachal Pradesh. Here in the mountains, the bike might actually be extremely practical for some people. When I saw it in a showroom in person, it seemed to have a higher seat than the Avenger but still too little for my legs.

Video by Bajaj auto on INS Vikrant with short interviews of the pilots who flew from her decks. Well made video. Voice over is patchy in some parts though. Interestingly they have interviewed both Peter Debrass who set a world record for ejecting under water as well as SK Gupta who led the White Tigers squadron in 1971. You can read about the exploits of both of them at

I took the V15 that my team mate bought recently for a short spin in my office

Pros:
The bike looks really nice in black, seating position is decent, breaking is ok, nice torque at low end, nice throaty note from the exhaust, seating position very similar to first gen pulsar 150 (I immediately got reminded of my own bike from 2003). It does turn heads and my friend said he gets frequent inquiries about the bike from passer by.

Cons:
1) I did not feel too comfortable in corners through our office basement parking ramps. It could be due to my own fears since over the last couple of years, I moved from Fazer to a Ray.
2) Engine was not very smooth but the bike has hardly done 300 kms and engine could become smoother
3) No tachometer
4) No engine kill swith
5) no 1 down 4 up type gear shift

Over the weekend I decided to check out Bajaj V, as I was fascinated by its lineage to INS Vikrant.
I took a test ride and surprisingly the power generated by the 150cc DTSi engine was superb. It had a very beefy look and a beautifully embossed insignia on the Petrol cap of INS Vikrant's anchor.
To my burlusque figure, it seemed to withstand very well a decent look with me on board.
I was given the below price quotation :
Ex-Showroom : 63328
Life Tax : 6310
Insurance : 2029
T/R & Regn : 1650
Accessories : 1800 (Crash guard, Saree Guard & Rear Seat Cover)TOTAL : 74937 (On road price)
For 75k, it looked like a value proposition, as you would be owning a piece of history.

Bajaj Auto Ltd. has sold 1 lakh units of its latest commuter motorcycle, the V15. The Bajaj V15 was launched in the month of March 2016, and has thus achieved this sales milestone within four months from its launch date.

Bajaj has used the steel from the INS Vikrant, India's legendary warship, to fabricate the fuel tank of the bike. This has proved to be a selling point for the new commuter bike, which has thus managed to clock 31,848 units in May, and 26,482 units in June.

After success of the V15, Bajaj is also working on two new models for the V range. The company will also ramp up production of the V15 from September 2016, to meet the rising demand.

Someone please post an ownership review of this bike. I'm waiting to read how this bike actually performs in traffic. From all the TDs, the report seems to be that at high speeds the bike vibrates since the engine is tuned to deliver torque at lower RPMs. Is it true? And of course, in city traffic "kitna deti hai?"

Been meaning to comment on this very interesting bike for awhile, especially after watching one pass my workshop daily for the past month or so:

Scanning the forum, my impression is that the styling is being a little over-scrutinized, to really minute levels in some cases, while to me the bike to me looks better in real life than what most of the promo photos depict.

But more broadly (and importantly): Taking the other market options into consideration, I have to ask: What kind of true commuters / practical all-rounders are out there that really have any sort of distinct uniqueness / visual appeal / road "presence", along with decent performance? Sales numbers are looking good, and I can see why, partly in view of the alternatives:

Honda's Unicorn has always been a great product and a good ride, but it's also always been fairly dull and uninteresting to look at (or to state it more positively, it is at best "solidly conservative"). Same goes for the GS, and few if any of the 125's are really even worth mentioning. The Dazzler is (/was) cursed with an extremely stupid name and gave up a bit of practicality in its efforts to try and be cool, likewise (very clearly) the better-named (and to me overpriced) Hornet. Similarly the FZ / Pulsar stables are full of bikes with bulbous tanks you can't sit a kid on, and rakishly stylish but generally uncomfortable / high C.O.G pillion seats; not to mention their rather needless (at this performance level) low handles and rear-set footpegs that put a lot of extra weight on the wrists; so IMO mostly show, a little "go" but low levels of practicality for anything but purely solo and generally shorter runs. Apache might be marginally better but still kind of low bars (friend finally traded his in for that reason), and still in my view a bit dull in the styling dept. Can't comment much on the Gixxer and a couple others as I've not ridden them, BUT

...What's clear is that there's really nothing else out there even remotely like the V in the 150 playing field.

It would seem to have achieved that rare balance of practicality AND visual / performance appeal: It's not held back by a tiny 100/125 commuter mill; It's got a great exhaust note; It's not too heavy or too light; It's got a powerful 60W headlamp. It's got a rather flat and presumably comfy seating arrangement for two-up (or family?) riding - YET with all this it's got something of a real (if somewhat "alternative") sporting / enthusiast image. It looks kinda muscular and substantial, but it's presumably pretty efficient, too. The price is probably undercutting many/most of the 150cc-class bikes by a fair margin. You can call the styling quirky / unintegrated but to me it's in no way unappealing taken as a whole and/or when actually seen in motion.

I think what I like the most here is the "honesty" of the design: nothing "fake" about this, no unnecessary extras thrown in: Clean, minimalist instrumentation, an all-steel tank with no senseless extensions or fake shrouding or other plastic bits to rattle about; graphics are simple enough and suitable to the form; The bike isn't trying to "be" anything it's not. It's certainly not a commuter trying to look like a super-motard or adventure tourer or moto-GP bike (won't name names here). As Popeye always said, "I am what I am". To me that's an immensely refreshing approach to things. We have far too many posers out there already.

The patriotic / heritage theme of course can't hurt things in any way. It's been a long time in this market since anything but a Bullet could appeal to anything like a legacy, and I suppose this is a reasonable attempt at something like that. Modern bikes have always had this stigma of "use and throw" and I'd have to say this is an extremely interesting (if slightly ironic) twist on that - being that something very substantial (i.e., an old naval ship) has actually been "used and thrown" but is finding its way into this rather solid-looking new motorcycle.

12 bhp sounds a little weak, but numbers mean little and it all depends on the actual feel on-road. I'll let others with more experience comment on that; but IF the quality control / reliability prove as solid as the image, Bajaj may have a real winner here. Let's see if it turns out to be a fad / fleeting interest (an econo-cruiser like the Enticer comes to mind), or something that'll pay off for them longer-term. Whatever, I applaud Bajaj for daring to bring something very much "out-of-the box" - and yet probably very much needed - into the market.

It has always struck me that perhaps the all-time best-loved - I suppose almost the original "commuter" bike - the RX100 - wasa (very) flat-seated/tanked, conservatively styled, great performing and (at least when fuel was cheap) extremely practical little crotch-rocket - Bajaj's RTZ perhaps even better balanced, with superior FE and a little more styling pizazz;

I'd long wondered whether common sense would ever finally prevail and we'd again find a somewhat interesting/sporting sort of machine that would be as appealing and justifiable to family men as to youths. If Bajaj is saving demographic data re: sales, it would prove very interesting to have a look at.